the week's top stories on. israel suggest. the syrian opposition. troops will stay in. egypt protests demanding the resignation of president president. and the u.s. political. stories

that made headlines this week. the syrian president bashar al assad says his able to confront any aggression. trying to destabilize the country it's all of the comments made by the israeli defense minister today for the first time that his forces were behind this week's attack on its northern neighbor. reports. it does come from the israeli defense minister a good bloke and he has said that it is proof that when israel says something it means that he did stop short of actually a third being israel's involvement now u.s.

officials have said that the strike targeted an arms convoy that was carrying anti aircraft weapons from syria to lebanon according to the israeli defense minister ehud barak he said that we do not think and i'm quoting that syria should be allowed to bring advanced weapons systems into lebanon it is important to make the point that his comments does not constitute acknowledgement of israel's involvement in the strike but it certainly does suggest the possibility that it took place and it was responsible for it but also said that the syrian president bashar assad's fall is imminent and that it would serve as a major blow to his villa and we need to look at this israeli strategy and it's a strategy that israel has employed in the past and that is namely a strategy of silence it is strategic it doesn't give any kind of confirmation or any kind of denial what israel has done in the past does not want an attack then leave and it really its response has been a no comment which really leaves the question in opposite of as minds it is a culture lated moves because the simons allows israel's enemies to save face and

thus reduce the risk of reprisal and its coalition against the jewish state of course the international fallout from any kind of israeli strike in syria would create immense arguments in the international community we've heard for example from moscow who says that if indeed israel did carry out the strike it was an attack on a sovereign state and as such it breached international law the arab league has also condemned the strike saying it is in violation of international law and it is purported against a man of a sovereign state so israel of course will not want to come out publicly and acknowledge that it carried out such a strike because it would not want to have the kind of diplomatic complications and diplomatic fallout that would follow from such an admission. well hopes of ending the ongoing conflict in syria have received a slight boost this on the sidelines of a key security conference in munich that's where russia's foreign minister sergei lavrov held his first direct talks with the leader of syria's main opposition of

the national coalition and moscow is called on the rebel group to be realistic and unite in order to begin peace negotiations with president assad. once again reiterated any use of force is unacceptable and that the war in syria could have ended already if geneva agreement on a unity government had been heeded the editor of politics first magazine marcus papadopoulos things diplomacy still has a very long way to go for the meeting between the leader of the so the planes syrian national coalition and the foreign ministers of russia and iran is an acknowledgement by the leader of the syrian national coalition that the syrian government it's not going to be defeated on the military battlefield and it is acknowledgement that thousands of syrian civilians have died unnecessarily and because outside players in the region turkey saudi arabia qatar and being fun and

weapons and cash to the militants in syria i think certainly lateral the russian foreign minister said last year how surprised he was by the e.u. did see the form of a syrian opposition in cruelly. kristen's a stance to go from power to resign to step down except that's not the way diplomacy works that's not the way peace process. hillary clinton about a year ago accused russian government of having blood on its hands oh unfortunately it's more the countries saudi arabia qatar and saudi arabia who have the blood of fountains of controls of syrian civilians in their hands because of their own geo strategic ambitions i.e. to see the removal of presence is sad and the syrian government's. well during his visit to mali president francois hollande claimed the french troops who were main in the west african state until the complete reinstatement of its sovereignty i mean while the france led military campaign there has been mond by alleged human

rights abuses with activists reporting civilian deaths torture and ethnic reprisals by the local army we do have an exclusive report now though it spews exposing the realities on the ground in some of the most battle scarred areas of the country. bunny's these and i mean in this mop the area we've discovered allegations of war crimes information about them is under the control of mali's military government. i think it's getting more and more the she called to talk to people a lot of. human rights activists who are trying to identify witnesses all saying that people climbing up and feeling the heat they are scared to speak a lot of people here. are very sure fool the malian army seems to be doing whatever it can to prevent people from speaking to opinion when i was there because this government took advantage of the media's interest in all and for the first time visited the city's worst affected by hostilities today in the town of qana we were

surprised by the arrival of mamadou c. d. bag the minister for humanitarian action and solidarity this was an attempt to bring the bomb a call government closer to the people who regard the capital as remote for them with this visit in this event staged by politicians coincided with the publication of reports by international organizations such as amnesty international and human rights watch alleging atrocities crimes and violence on both sides for instance in qana several civilians were reportedly killed in french air force shelling of we tried to interview the injured however were unable to obtain evidence in a community that has until now been strictly regulated by the military authorities and he said that. the ministry says an investigation is underway has got so far no evidence has been provided so let the judicial system do its job to list all of these government its people and military are well aware of current events and we

know that we cannot play this game. of the government has been attempting to assert political power despite very poor infrastructure today we spoke to an army private on his way back from them he told us. he hadn't been paid or even properly for fifteen days and even if this war continues there will be a need for justice after a comprehensive internal investigation rather than heartfelt celebrations and demonstrations of power. and a former deputy speaker of the belgian parliament a load of says that considering the current political state of mali violence is inevitable. what i hear now is how this surprises me i mean that first of all the million army does hold a grudge against people who are stemmed from the northern part of the country and secondly the soldiers of a very low grade and at very little armaments and such as they're not really a regular army in that sense there's only

a. harley state apparatus functioning how can your adjusted people and examine what they do you can't you just ground nick underlying that so the only thing you can do correctly is if you think people might be terrorist is hold them and arrest them and detain them what you certainly will do is this is this kind of actually judicial executions but eternally surprises me that this is going on right now this country needs support yes this country needs are we why is it that this help only comes in the form of military invasions that's a basic question usually we should ask ourselves on a shift gears now and turn our attention to that of egypt by deepening fissures in egypt society continue to grow this week an ongoing crackdown on anti-government protests fail to silence calls for president morsi to quit some of the latest violence so one person shot dead and many others injured when security forces tried to disperse angry crowds which had actually attacked the presidential palace and

it's only worse in the political and social stalemate the opposition yet again refused to join a national dialogue and vowed to step up its protests and the president warned of decisive measures in dealing with the unrest as the military currently has increased powers to a month long state of emergency imposed last week activist yes that is male says morsi is repeating the mistakes of his predecessor. and this is very unfortunate. repeating the mistake over the eggs of the mubarak are usually an easy daddy i believe he was of the people that run the country in this embarrassing and that's very unfortunate that we go out. some of our it was very very clear and i don't think you have a second term to look forward for with this kind of fact that the continuing on the street and the brutality and the lack of security the unemployment is that you have made a major major problem to be tackling you for forcing his agenda on the people. nothing

changes the reality that evil are working and training under a lot of years they are running from the same books and the same protocol the only way they know how to deal with a top echelon for the police are still there and running the country with the same tactic they learned. the day the ship of mubarak and they don't know how to do it differently. well look i'm here at all to talk about a final goodbye before going behind bars so we don't even realize how much of a police state the united states has become we talked to the former cia officer and a whistleblower over america's torture program there's no two and a half years in prison. for the men that a family who died it was responsible for my tortured she she was beating me and she took to me a medical workers in bahrain claimed. by the author already is for treating those.

demonstrations. more news today violence is once again flared up. these are the images cold world has been seeing from the streets of canada. giant corporations rule the day. choose your language. call if we could with oh if you're going to stay still so much. choose the consent you. choose to give to us that you'd be great to. choose the stories that impact your

life choose me access to. thanks very much for joining us here on r.t. today on rory sushi in moscow for the first man convicted for blowing the whistle on america's prison torture program has now begun a two and a half year prison sentence cia veteran john kiriakou was convicted of exposing washington's secret interrogation tactics and what it was finally defused before being locked away he told r.t. exactly what he thinks he's being punished for. first of all my case was not about

leaking my case was about torture when i blew the whistle on torture in december of two thousand and seven the justice to department here in the united states began investigating me and never stopped investigating me until they were able to patch together. charge and force me into taking a plea agreement and i'll add another thing to when i took the plea in october of last year the judge said that she thought the plea was was fair and appropriate but once the courtroom was packed full of reporters last friday she decided that it was not long enough and if she had had the ability to she would have given me ten years in this post nine eleven atmosphere that we find ourselves in we have been losing our civil liberties incrementally over the last decade to the point where we don't even realize how much of a police state the united states has become you know ten years ago the thought of the national security agency spying on american citizens and intercepting their

emails would have been anathema to americans and now it's just part of normal business. the idea that that our government would be using drone aircraft to assassinate american citizens who have never seen the inside of a courtroom who have never been charged with a crime have not had due process which is their constitutional right would have been unthinkable and it's something now that happens every every so often every few weeks every few months and there is no public outrage i think this is a very dangerous development. this week also on our team as we reported senator john kerry was sworn in as the new u.s. secretary of state and while defense chief nominee chuck hagel was ultimately grilled by the senate. military force as a last resort a few which is attracting both admiration and criticism among american politicians but some experts believe washington will not scale down its foreign military campaigns no matter who's manning the helm at the pentagon and president obama was

elected in two thousand and a we you know the same kind of hope to mizzen was there with shutting down gitmo and ending these wars and fighting the right kind of wars but then we find out when you know after the deal is done after the elections are over the nomination process is over we continue with our war footing around the world no matter what the politicians come before those cameras and tell you what the key factors are that we need to take care of it be a social safety nets or the economy or or jobs being created in this country the united states will always have money for two things you can be rest assured bakers and bullets we already see the headlines coming out of the mainstream media talking about the sequester and how this is going to get our military we will have nonstop propaganda being a bombarded on to the people that fear of reducing the budget of the military so i'm absolutely confident that whoever is secretary of defense will have a very very loose pocketbook to spend to keep spinning us into having. this is the

weekly on r t there was plenty of fallout in france this week following comments from the country's labor minister who said his nation was totally bankrupt and michelle in later corrected himself claiming it was all just a joke but executive director devi advisors petrie young doesn't quite see the funny side the problem is the french government is the biggest economic actor in france it spans the equivalent of fifty six point five percent of all of the economic activity the only other countries that spent more apart from sweden in the european union are places like north korea and we all know those are not the world's most prosperous nations there is absolutely no question the french need incredible radical economic reform it was not present on the sarkozy administration and frankly the feckless and incompetence of mr hall on the president has resulted in the situation we have noise massive outpouring of cash if you do three billion

euros that's the equivalent of about two percent of the entire economy left the country just during october and november last year let's face it the last time the french government thousandths their books was in the middle of the ninety's seventy's france is in a knot hole in prices barely half the country are paying income tax you've got a situation where in fact public opinion is not just starting to realize that france is bankrupt. and i stood outside with the r.t. world after some other global headlines for you and brief starting with a bloody terrorist attack has killed at least thirty three and injured many more this in northern iraq a suicide bomber rammed a car packed with explosives into a police headquarters in code of cork it was followed by heavy gunfire and grenades launched by men dressed in police uniforms the assault occurred in an ethnically divided city of deeply embroiled in a sectarian conflict between shia kurdish and sunni factions. a

roadside bomb attack in a southern province of afghanistan has killed a family of five so the victims were small children they were traveling by car when they run over an explosive device it's not known whether the family was targeted on purpose. well believe it or not economists in the u.k. have warned that recent heavy snowfall in britain could push the country into a triple dip recession as bad news for retailers especially local independent stores who are going to the wall in greater numbers than ever because of his party boy who discovered as one traditional business which has managed to turn the tide it's older than buckingham palace and tower bridge and it's been a local store in the heart of rural east england for three hundred and seventy years visits as you stumble across the village shop in this remote region of norfolk say that it's like you know a seth in the middle of the desert. it was faced with going out of business

until twenty five villages stepped in raise five thousand pounds to keep it open and what that the free. community made short of literally the free workforce allows it to stay open and breakeven i think people are happy in their lives by working for free. to come in and do something knowing that your contribution has a meaning and purpose. isn't. it just heritage and we've got to make sure it does continue for the next generation volunteers who run the say that there are two secrets to success the locally sourced produce means that propping up the local economy take for example your free range eggs delivered from a nearby village there's a second secret that the famous chocolate biscuits customers travel far and wide for this homemade treat but even with volunteers staying open is hard

the major national chains whose immense buying power tempts with food sold for next to nothing has killed thousands of independent british shops leaving villages and now wait well obviously we're up against supermarkets and we all use supermarkets but to be able to have a local store which does local produce and is something where you can chat to people everybody. hears amazing it would be dreadful if we did it because once you lose something like this you can never get it back again and they're not alone in getting together to save their small shop from extinction there are three hundred other communities stores in some of the u.k.'s most rural pockets winning customers by knowing that retail means detail. in really difficult economic times but they really punching above their weight. something. quite different from what a supermarket is. offering for example they offer cafes they're offering postal

services they're offering somewhere to go in and talk to your neighbors and your friends and if working for free is what it takes to keep it hearing and shop open and so be it. i really do it's the kind of spirit that could see this tiny store whether the wost and hopefully stay open for another three hundred years. see north norfolk u.k. . and why were formerly being held hostage for eight months by russian mafia members an irish real estate tycoon claims he was given a punishment he would never forget find out what was carved right into the man's forehead on our website. also online for you the russian football premier league's dark horse and g. squad was said to be the third most expensive transfer in the country's history discover who set

a joint. and friends of the dagestan club that are to dock. medical workers in bahrain say they are being targeted by the authorities for treating injured protesters doctors say the retribution has been severe or the government insists it's now investigating the allegations. looks at those who are always at risk simply for trying to help nada dhaif was among a group of doctors who were trying to help the injured during a protest in bahrain she claims that after violently crushing the dissent the all forty stirred their attention to her and her colleagues who were providing first aid they deny. health care to the patients and protesters. the doctors did not obey the orders for such. decided to punish those doctors i was taken to a place for ten days that i didn't know where it was. all that time i was

blindfolded and handcuffed i was in a solitary confinement for back to twenty one days. and they would just open the door of the cell and beat me up and. there was a member of the royal family who directly was responsible of my porch or she she was beating me and she looked cute to me almost two dozen doctors were arrested back then this for the fuel the anger of the protesters and turned the hospital grounds into the scene of the rally the sound money hospital is bahrain's leading medical institution and that's where most of the arrests have been made after those events it now looks like a fortress guarded heavily by the right police and not everybody can get a human rights activist say if you had suffered for speaking out against the regime and decided to come here for treatment you could make matters even worse for yourself anyone who was injured from the protests they cannot go to the hospital

because they would be arrested beaten and taken to the jail last year many protester and in jail where torture insults and money we have a story and the similar people and protested being tortured and the jail but in my country protests were tortured inside. britain not who was charged with treason and sentenced to fifteen years in prison before being acquitted because of what she believed to be international pressure on bahrain's government the fate of many other doctors remains unclear the person who allegedly tortured not and others princes. has been officially charged by police she denies all allegations against her meanwhile the guy. woman stands resumed the action to condense the hospital was the right thing to do i went and these doctors managed to control the emergency unit in the first floor of the hospital and started to perform political acts when

a hospital is journeyed to a base for political ethnic work and this is a real disaster we had an unbiased committee investigating the hospital condemn the acts of these doctors as. the case against one of the members of the world family may seem as an indication the bahrain's government has bowed to the negative global reaction with the doctor scandal being far from the only torture accusation c.c.t.v. cameras have been installed at all prisons in a move to become more transparent according to the authorities but with protests in the gulf states still continuing and accusations of human rights violations intensifying the opposition is still wondering what happens in the places where the cameras cannot see let's see where chefs to see reporting from the kingdom of bahrain. all right coming up after a very short break here on c weathering a winter with temperatures of minus forty you know i don't think so actually but it

was stunning documentary it's just around. us. the government no longer represents the. people or going to take such.